LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Asif Bajwa has claimed that he has held very successful meetings with several ex-Olympians and stalwarts and said they are ready to work with the federation to put the national game back on track. He added that within a week a big gathering of Olympians will be held in Islamabad at an Iftar party to decide further course of action.

Talking to media here on Monday, Asif said in Lahore he met with great Manzoor Junior and Khawaja Junaid and then in Karachi he had the meetings with Hanif Khan, Ahmad Alam, Kamran Ashraf, Danish Kaleem and also rang up Ayaz Mahmood who all assured him of their cooperation in revival of hockey.

“They all are keen to come forward to play their role with the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to put the game back on the right track,” the secretary said. “I will ensure all that the transparency in the financial affairs of the PHF from now on will be guaranteed to keep the trust of all the donors.”

“We are going to take every step to ensure our donors to check out our financial accounts which have been displayed on our website,” he said.

It may be mentioned that Asif, who replaced Shahbaz Senior early this month, in his first press conference had announced that the PHF would display its accounts on its official website after every three months. It was an attempt to keep uplift the PHF status and its image which has been tarnished in the past due to the corruption allegations from different former Olympians.

Dawn learnt that Asif’s announcement to ensure the transparency in the financial affairs of the PHF helped him a lot to have meetings with the former Olympians who are apparently keen to work with him for the uplift of the game.

Moreover, Asif said as the forensic audits of the PHF was in progress and all the reservations of the e-Olympians about corruption would be cleared, once those would be made public by the government.

Moreover, the secretary said in Karachi the big issue was over the parallel bodies working in the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) and in this regard he also discussed the matter with Kamran Ashraf and Hanif Khan.

About the future activity, the PHF secretary said a hectic plan is being chalked out and the first step will be to hold the national hockey championships which could not be held for the last one and half years due to various reasons.

Though Asif has planned to hold the National Champ­ionship from June 25, it may have to be postponed since it coincides with the cricket World Cup and could be held soon after the mega event.

“Our first plan is to hold the national championship and then the people of Pakistan will see non-stop hockey tournaments like indoor hockey, five-a-side hockey, women’s hockey, junior level and international hockey without any break,” he vowed.

To a question he expressed hope that a meeting with another former great Shahnaz Sheikh would also be held as he wanted to take all on board in the campaign to arrest the current decline of the game.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2019